That's a rather vague question, do you mean that the dream characters are aware they are not real? If so, then it could be argued that the dream characters are mere hallucinations and have no actual 'soul' at all. However what if they are actually real people, perhaps not from this planet, whom look upon us in a dream and see us as a character? It's a very interesting subject

Interesting... the universe (and parallel ones) are infinite right? So any imagination could be a situation/place right?Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttttttt...Dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaammmmmmmmssss...

Its just an assumption that there are paralell universes and hell our own universe might not even be infinite.

I think dream characters are just more like zombies, they act like they are conscious but they aren't. I had a strange dream with my mum, I became lucid and I started making fun of her. We were arguing about something and then I said "you do realise this is my dream right? This isn't real, its just a dream"

She then started getting angry at me for acting so stupid, she pretty much reacted like she would have if I said that in real life. Im guessing its because I expected her to. I just thought now though, what if I made her to a reality check, like in Inception?

If she really is conscious and I ask her how she got there, she should be confused ( or any other dream character btw). However if she is just a part of my subconscious she will mostly likely make up a story that I cant disprove. I have a feeling if I were to ask her to block her nose and breathe she would refuse to do it as it would be ridiculous.

However this gives me an idea. Say I talk to my mum about this in real life, and tell her if I ask you to do a reality check, will you do it for me, just out of curiousity? She believes in lucid dreams and if she agrees, then maybe my projection of her in my dream will agree as I expect it to!

"There is theoretical abstraction, and then there is true abstraction."

Unfortunately yes they can. I recently had a LD when one did just that. I was a woman, don't ask me why, and leader of about a dozen other women, in conflict with a bunch of men. I set up the dream to have a Xenia warrior princess bloodbath with them, when suddenly the character takes over herself and while I helplessly watch in her body resolves the whole thing peacefully! As soon as this happens she kicked me out of the character, as I'm floating over the dreamscape as a disembodied consciousness, she winks at me. I was going this can't be happening! I want my amazon bloodbath.

"There is only one God and his name is Death.And there is only one thing we say to death "not today"- Syrio Forel

Wow that sounds awesome, maybe its your subconscious telling you not to do bad stuff in a dream. I think a problem with doing unethical things in a dream is that it might increase your desire to do so in reality... which is why our dreams never really go exactly the way we want them.

"There is theoretical abstraction, and then there is true abstraction."

Jack Reacher wrote:Wow that sounds awesome, maybe its your subconscious telling you not to do bad stuff in a dream. I think a problem with doing unethical things in a dream is that it might increase your desire to do so in reality... which is why our dreams never really go exactly the way we want them.

Characters in lucid dreams are essentially toy soldiers, fighting them off against each other is not any more "immoral" than doing it with play soldiers and hardly makes it more likely one would do it with real people. Real people are ones fellows with equal rights. One can only kill them only if two conditions are met: they're murderers; they are trying to kill someone or have killed someone. That said I never spare a vampire in a dream and would not spare one in real life either. This is what I would have done to all the Nazi or Daleks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq-LsoOTEGI

"There is only one God and his name is Death.And there is only one thing we say to death "not today"- Syrio Forel

So far, my DCs seem like real people until I get lucid, then they are more or less zombies. If I talk to them, they smile and nod like they agree with me. But then I could say the opposite thing and they would smile and nod for that too. They seem to be saying, "whatever you want, that's O.K."

I remember one I my first lucid dreams, I kept running around telling everyone I could find that I was dreaming. All they did was smile, like "oh isn't that nice". My dream characters in lucid dreams are like the Stepford Wives. Maybe I need to run one through with kitchen knife and see what happens.

Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world? Morpheus

Dreams and their characters are created by the subconscious mind, even lucid ones. So I work on the basis that dream characters are projections of my own subconscious - different parts of my personality and core beliefs personified. Does this make them self-aware? I have no idea! (If people can develop multiple personalities in real life, each with their own separate awareness, then maybe a handful of dream characters can do the same? Some, however, do seem quite unmotivated and empty, it has to be said.)

I aim to treat DCs with respect, as I feel making them fight or kill each other is like trying to kill parts of my Self! Literally or metaphorically, this doesn't seem productive to me... Even "unwanted" elements of my psyche can still be evolved or modified, there's no need to terminate them.

I guess if you're just role playing and you're happy with it then you get to make allowances - it is, after all, your own subconscious playground and you make the rules when lucid. But perhaps this explains why Snaggle's dream averted its own bloodbath?

I also notice that in general men seem to enjoy more killing and action in their lucid dreams, while women enjoy other stuff.... so maybe it's my natural instinct to avoid killing DCs! I do tend to look at any death dreams as nightmares or highly cathartic dreams - not really something I'd do just for fun like it's so often portrayed in video games or the movies. If a character dies, it's highly meaningful to me.

I think main characters might be important, but I think less involved characters are just there for display, it reminds me of Inception. That girl got concerned when Leo starts sniping the projections, when she asks if he is killing off parts of his mind/self he says no they are just projections.

I think they are pretty much like philosophical zombies, things that can act conscious but aren't. Unfortunately there is no scientific experiment that can actually prove if something is conscious or not.

"There is theoretical abstraction, and then there is true abstraction."